A journey through infertility & into motherhood

OHSS

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Well, yesterday was NOT a good day for me. I woke up nauseous and ended up puking in the afternoon. My nurse suggested I take Gravol to help with the nausea. She think it was from all the meds and the whole process just catching up to me. My ovaries were also so sore and I was extremely constipated. I tried a Senokat-S before bed and it did nothing to relieve my backed-up rear end.

We went into the clinic today for a check up. My ovaries are still swollen but there’s no fluid in my abdomen. Dr. H told me to buy some glycerine suppositories to relieve my constipation. Let me tell you – those suppositories work miracles! I am feeling SO MUCH BETTER. The constipation must have been putting extra pressure on my ovaries, because they aren’t as sore either since I finally had a bowel movement.

He also wants me to continue sticking to the OHSS diet, but I am allowed a little bit of Gingerale if my stomach is bothering me. I’ve started eating a few more fruits and vegetables too. I can’t handle feeling like crap from high protein/high salt foods. It’s kinda ironic that I spent months eating healthy only to be told to eat crap to prevent getting really sick. Why do so many aspects of (in)fertility have to be so contradictory?

We are on track for a Friday transfer. Right now, we currently have 12 embryos. Our clinic grades them on a 20 point scale with 19-20 being rare. We have 9-18s and 3-17s. We expect a few to drop off before Friday but it’s nice to know we have some high quality embryos to chose from.

I’m looking forward to the transfer and to getting home. When you are sick, there’s nothing that compares to your own bed. I also really miss my fur babies.

I did get a nice surprise in the mail today. My best friend mailed a package to our rental apartment that contained a beautiful rose quartz sphere, some foot soaks and CHIHUAHUA socks!!! Seriously, I never know where she finds these amazing items.

Note to MLACS: I will wear your socks to my first ultrasound. After going through all this, I am telling you there will be ultrasounds. 🙂

One thing that I’ve learned throughout this process is that I have the utmost respect for any woman who has been down this IVF path – especially more than once. IVF is hard physically, emotionally and spiritually. People don’t realize that you are having legit surgery and putting tons of foreign drugs into your body with the hope of creating an embryo, getting pregnant and then maintaining that pregnancy. For us, it doesn’t end with a positive pee stick.

I feel fortunate that this cycle has not been much of an emotional roller coaster for me, but I have been feeling it since retrieval. In the clinic this morning, I started crying while reading one of those “This is how we made you via IVF” books for children. I just truly hope that our (in)feritility journey is close to an end. I can’t wait to one day read that book to my children because I’m damn proud of everything I’ve gone through to get them here. And I know my husband and I will appreciate them even more because of it.

Like this:

All systems are a go: my egg retrieval is scheduled for this Sunday August 31 at 8:30 am.

Today, Dr. H measured 23 follicles total between the range of 12.9-19.5 mm with the majority being in the 16-18mm range. Ouchie. My poor ovaries.

Yesterday’s count was 31 follicles! I’m thinking he just didn’t count the smaller ones today or maybe a few dropped off.

Dr. H gave me a small glimmer of hope that we may transfer, but it would depend on my embryo quality and if I’m showing an signs of OHSS. I asked the nurse after he left the room what she thought and she said it’s highly unlikely. He wouldn’t want to risk it especially with us being from out of town. Sorry, I should clarify: the freeze-all cycle came from Dr. G, but Dr H runs the show at our clinic. Dr. H has not given me a definite yet as to whether or not if will be a freeze-all cycle. At this point, we understand that it’s highly likely to be a freeze-all. Wow how many times did I say freeze-all in that paragraph? Hope that made sense folks.

We are still taking things one step at a time. We know that we won’t know for sure until mid-next week.

In the past three days, my estrogen has gone from 5980 to 7670 to 9775. I wouldn’t say this has been much of a sleep-in vacation. We’ve been at the clinic for 7:30 am for two days in a row and will be again tomorrow for another blood draw.

Tonight, I am triggering at 9:30 pm with 2 mg of Suprefact. The Suprefact is given instead of HCG to help prevent OHSS. I’m also starting Dostinex tonight which is also supposed to help prevent OHSS (Dani – is this what you had?). Tomorrow morning, I start the antibiotic Doxycycline twice a day.

In Canada, we aren’t completely out for our retrieval, just consciously sedated. Did any of you ladies bring an iPod or something in with you to listen to? My clinic said I could, but I had never really considered it. Thought it might make sense to listen to a meditation, but then again, I might want to listen to what’s going on. Insatiably curious, clearly. 🙂

We had our 1st monitoring appointment at the clinic today. Turns out, I’m responding VERY well to the drugs. I expected the opposite since my AMH count showed I was low fertility and therefore considered as diminished ovarian reserve. I wish I had said more as I had a hunch I would stimulate better than they expected.

Although this is disappointing, I know that my health and safety is not worth the risk of transferring (even with a CD8 lining of 9.6 mm).

I’m still praying for a miracle (meaning rapidly declining estrogen levels). Since that’s highly unlikely, we are just hoping for a successful retrieval with a few high grade, beautiful embryos on ice awaiting our return.

I’m going back tomorrow morning for another blood test and ultrasound. My RE thinks the retrieval will be Sunday.

Right now, my biggest side effects are bloat, swollen ovaries and slow walking due to swollen ovaries. I’m still getting tired easily if I do too much. My husband is pretty adamant that I take care of myself (meaning I’m not getting many opportunities to go shopping. haha) I’m actually feeling really emotionally stable. This taking things one step at a time is really helping.

As much as we received some unexpected news today, I am still grateful that we have a good chance at quite a few eggs.